Premier Cement fined Tk10 lakh, manager jailed for 6 months
The mobile court raided the factory in the afternoon after the death of a factory worker at 10:30 am on Friday
A mobile court fined Premier Cement Tk10 lakh and sentenced its Administrative Manager Nazrul Islam to six months of imprisonment for keeping the factory open amid the ongoing countrywide lockdown.
Meanwhile, the factory of Premier Cement Mills Limited in the Charmuktarpur area was also sealed for 13 days.
Executive Magistrate of the mobile court and SadarUpazilaNirbahi Officer (UNO) Hamidur Rahman took the actions against the company on Friday evening, Munshiganj Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Shilu Roy confirmed to The Business Standard.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
"We will soon launch a campaign against the factories that are still operating in the Muktarpur area," he added.
Earlier, the mobile court raided the factory in the afternoon after the death of a factory worker at 10:30 am on Friday.
The deceased was Md Shahabul, 38, hailed from West Shibrampur in Sundarganjupazila of Gaibandha district. Shahabul died in an accident while working in the factory.
Premier Cement Mills Limited had directed the workers to return to work by 8 am on 23 July after the Eid holidays.
Meanwhile, Premier Cement sent a rejoinder to the report as provided below:
The operation of cement factories being a heavy industry cannot be closed in normal time to keep supply uninterrupted in various national projects. Therefore, maintenance work needs to be carried out sometimes.
The company was running maintenance work taking advantage of the 14 days lockdown, during which an untoward incident took place.
However, no workers were engaged in production work showing respect to the government-imposed restrictions.
The company further said that law enforcement agencies and authorities were informed immediately after the accident took place.
But the official announced the penalty, having failed to assess the link between the accident and the production management.
An opportunity to reconsider the decision through a deep analysis into the incident has not closed.
In addition, there is a housing facility inside the factory and around one thousand people stay there all the time.
